Good things aren’t as good as you think. Bad things aren’t as bad as you think.
The operational definition of good is: “A measure of how many favorable future outcomes are perceived from something.”
But your perception isn’t accurate at all. You can only predict so much. Good things can lead to unfavorable outcomes. Bad things can also lead to favorable outcomes.
What matters is how you control the outcomes.
Make the most of your mistakes.
Rotten milk is waste, but when you control the rot, you get yogurt — which costs more than milk.
Rotten grapes are waste, but when you control the rot, you get wine — which costs more than grapes.
Controlled mistakes bring growth.
If you can reflect on your mistakes, extract lessons, generate ideas, and solve problems for yourself and others, instead of hating yourself for them, you’ll become grateful for them.
You can’t really forget your mistakes; you need to utilize them to do good.
You’re haunted by your mistakes because you haven’t made the most of them. Once you extract value from them, they’re no longer mistakes — they become resources.
Your mistakes aren’t “bad” or “good.” You determine that.
There’s no absolute good or bad; it’s all about timing and perspective.
The parable of the boy and the horse:
A rich man buys his son a horse. The villagers say, “Good for him!” The father says, “We’ll see.”
The boy breaks his leg riding the horse. The villagers say, “Bad for him!” The father says, “We’ll see.”
Then a war starts, and soldiers take all the young men, except the boy — his leg is broken.
The villagers go back to saying, “Lucky him.”
Sometimes, it was a good thing he got the horse, sometimes it was bad. In the end, it doesn’t matter. It just is. Accept it.
If something happens, ignore it. If you can’t ignore it, accept it. If you can’t accept it, change it. Anything beyond that is just noise.
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